Margo Lanagan: Tender Morsels
***SPOILER ALERT!!!*** This is a brilliant book, gorgeously written, completely engrossing. I stayed up half the night to read it because I couldn't put it down. Yes, there are lots of ugly things that happen in this book, just as they happen every day in every town. Anyone who thinks these things don't go on all around us is kidding themselves. But what I wanted and didn't get was for the heroine, Liga, to achieve happiness anyway. It's far too common for victims of abuse in literature to be punished by everyone and everything long after the abuse is over. It happens in movies, tv shows, everywhere. It's almost like we are unable to imagine coming back from things like rape and incest and living a happy life. But again, people do it every day. I was so wrapped up in this book that it was a complete shock to my system when Liga did not hear what she (and we) expected from Ramstrong near the end. Liga does not get even the most basic happily ever afte...